Santa Fe Peak Ski: Southwest Gullies

• Climbers: Zambo & Josh
• Peak: Sante Fe Peak (13,180 ft)
• Route: Southwest Gully (maybe the Silver Wave Coulior?)
• Distance: Approx 6 miles
• Vert: 2,670 feet
• Round Trip Time: 4:25
• Date Climbed: 6/8/19

“Ya know, next time we could always try something a little easier…”

That was Josh’s assessment after a winter outing on Longs Peak last year. That was the last time we got out together, and he was right. It seems like just about every time we climb together it’s via a route that is a mini-epic. But with some afternoon commitments looming on this particular Saturday, plus both of us eager to take his advice, we settled on a close, quick objective near Denver for our Saturday tour: Santa Fe Peak.

It’s no secret that the 2018 / 2019 season has been one for the record books. That left us with plenty of Front Range options for early June. We settled on Santa Fe due to the combo of: proximity to Denver, the straightforward route, a new peak for both of us, the (hoped for) ability to skin the whole thing, and the mild ski descent, since Josh was testing out a brand new setup.

Parking in Montezuma has a sorta ominous reputation (I’ve rolled the dice in this area in the past and won, but only reluctantly), but thankfully I think I finally figured it out on this trip. There’s a huge lot just south of the Webster Pass Road turn off that appears to be as close to a real parking lot as you’ll find in these parts. When we got back in the afternoon it was full of snowmobile toting brovilles, so I am gonna go ahead and declare this one safe for all future uses.

Anyway, we dropped skis, boots, and skins at the start of the Webster Pass Road (which also happened to be the start of the snow), drove back down to the parking lot, and then made the quick hike back up to the start of the skinning.

Along the Webster Pass road. Despite being on a west-facing aspect in June, the road held snow for (almost) the entire ascent into the basin, allowing us to stay in skis the whole time.

As we rose higher, I was initially skeptical that we could find a continuous line through the trees. But only a minimum amount of searching was required to stay on snow. Earlier in the season, this would be super simple to work your way through.

When we broke through the trees we could finally look up the southwest gullies and see that we were in luck. Lots of snow. Despite the weird aspect of these, surveying the mountain shows that the wind blows snow over Santa Fe’s west shoulder all season long and loads up the chutes. They were still perfectly primed and looked good.

The angle was great too. Just barely mellow enough to put in a good switchback and stay on skins all the way up. There was a great slope approx 500 vertical feet below the summit where we flipped onto the ridge to avoid the big cornice lurking above.

Upper basin looking good and in business.

A bit higher now.

Looking back down on the ascent line and Webster Pass.

Fully in the sun now. The day was sorta cloudy and breezy. Plus these gullies get a late sun hit. So, we weren’t in a huge rush.

This little shoulder was the perfect spot to roll up onto the ridge for the final stretch to the summit, being able to skin almost the whole way up.

The cornices this season have been somethin else.

Our continuous snow ran out less than 100 feet from the true summit. No bother though, as we ditched the skis and made the very quick trip to the top. As expected, the views from the top were as good as you could ever ask for. What a season…

Summit selfie.

Summit Pano. June 8th, 2019.

Over towards Grays & Torreys South faces. I wonder how often that side gets skied. This would have been the year for it, that’s for sure.

Quandary & the Mosquito Range looking caked.

We reached the summit at 9:15. But as I mentioned, the breeze, clouds, and aspect of this one had us wanting to wait a bit in hopes of corn. We hunkered down on the ridge just out of the wind and waited 45 minutes or so before dropping in.

In terms of the skiing, I’m honestly still not 100% sure we skied the Silver Wave Coulior, which is the marquee line on this side. In fact, I don’t think we did. I believe that gully is one south of what we did. However, on the trip up we could see that the other gully was melted out down low, so the decision was easy. We’d simply come down what we came up.

All in all, this was the right choice. This nice gully made for some fun turns. I do think we waited a bit too long, but that’s sort of the M.O. for this time of year, I suppose. Icy turns at the top give way to slush junk further down, with a few great ones in the middle. Oh well, still super great for this time of year.

I believe this is looking up the Silver Wave proper, avoided on this day for obvious reasons. Although, it looks to be essentially the same as what we did, so no real loss.

Josh on descent.

As the day heated up, the out was less than optimal. A June sun created lots of slush and heavy turns. No worries though as we were able to ski the whole thing down to the Webster Pass Gate and then walk from there.

A full recap of the day. (click to enlarge)

Overall, pretty much a perfect day and exactly the “easy” that we were hoping for: simple route, relaxed ski, snow the whole way, and home just after noon.

Thanks for reading if you did – happy skiing!